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1[[quoteright:249:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nomura_2_195.png]]
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3Tetsuya Nomura (born October 8, 1970) is a game director and graphic designer from Kochi Prefecture in Japan. He currently works for Creator/SquareEnix, where most gamers know him for his work on various ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games, the entirety of ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' and doing dozens of character designs for both.
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5Squaresoft originally hired him as a debugger to work on ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV''. He moved on to graphic designing for the subsequent two games, as well as several other RPG games for the [[Platform/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem Super Nintendo]]. His employer approached him to do character designs for ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII''. The game succeeded in becoming the definitive game of the Platform/PlayStation, and he would go on to design characters in subsequent games, succeeding the previous designer Creator/YoshitakaAmano, as well as a number of other properties.
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7Nomura advanced to a directing role when [[Creator/{{Disney}} Disney]] and Square Enix (then Square Soft) joined forces to develop the ''Kingdom Hearts'' series. He has directed all the games in the series, as well as designing the characters, concepts, and base stories to go with them. He has also worked in the animation field, directing ''Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren'' and supervising ''Last Order''. Nomura was director of the much-anticipated ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'' until December 2013, when he stepped down in favour of Hajime Tabata in order to concentrate on ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII''. This didn't stop him from focusing on other games such as ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'' and ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'', however.
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9The designer is best known for his use of [[TooManyBelts belts]] and {{zipper|iffic}}s. While he can produce simple and practical belts, as can be seen on his first iteration of Cid, he has a tendency to go for elaborate designs. According to [[https://www.mirror.co.uk/tech/kingdom-hearts-fan-questions-answered-10832218 an interview,]] the more people mock him for his designs, the more he's encouraged to use zippers and belts. These can range from the mildly practical, such as in Sora's case, to the downright improbable mesh of Lulu's skirt (which is seemingly ''[[TooManyBelts made of belts]]'').
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11!!This Creator's portfolio includes:
12* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series
13** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV''
14** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV''
15** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI''
16** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII''
17*** ''Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren''
18*** ''Anime/LastOrderFinalFantasyVII''
19*** ''[[VideoGame/DirgeOfCerberus Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII]]''
20*** ''[[VideoGame/CrisisCore Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII]]''
21*** ''[[VideoGame/BeforeCrisis Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII]]''
22*** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake''
23*** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRebirth''
24** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII''
25** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX''
26*** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2''
27** ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy''
28*** ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy2015''
29** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII''
30*** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyType0''
31** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV''
32* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series
33** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI''
34** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories''
35** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII''
36** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsCoded''
37** ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2''
38** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep''
39** ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance''
40** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsX''
41** ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts02BirthBySleepAFragmentaryPassage''
42** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII''
43** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsMelodyOfMemory''
44** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsMissingLink''
45** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIV''
46* ''Parasite Eve'' series
47** ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve''
48** ''Parasite Eve II''
49** ''The 3rd Birthday''
50* ''[[MarketBasedTitle Musashiden]]'' series
51** ''VideoGame/BraveFencerMusashi''
52** ''VideoGame/MusashiSamuraiLegend''
53* ''The World Ends with You'' series
54** ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou''
55** ''VideoGame/NeoTheWorldEndsWithYou''
56* Other Series
57** ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger''
58** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG''
59** ''Dynami Tracer''
60** ''VideoGame/FrontMission1''
61** ''VideoGame/LiveALive''
62** ''VideoGame/{{Ehrgeiz}}''
63** ''VideoGame/TheBouncer''
64** ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' (he was originally supposed to do work on ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'', but was too busy with ''Final Fantasy'')
65
66!!This Creator provides examples of:
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68* ArtEvolution: His art style changed starkly from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' to ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' and then changed again for the first ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI''. He's undergone another change since then and seems to have settled down for now.
69* AttentionDeficitCreatorDisorder: He's the director and father of the ''Kingdom Hearts'' series while continuing to work on assorted ''Final Fantasy'' projects, doing concept art for numerous Square Enix titles in general, and is credited as a Creative Producer on most newer ''Final Fantasy'' titles. Odds are if you played a Square Enix game released after 2010, Nomura had at least ''some'' sort of input on things. Rumors abound that the reason ''Final Fantasy XV'' and ''Kingdom Hearts III'' languished in DevelopmentHell for so long [[labelnote:*]]''FFXV'' was finally released in 2016, while ''KHIII'' was released at last in January of 2019[[/labelnote]] is because Square Enix keeps Nomura too busy on too many projects and he can't give any of them the time they need.
70* AuthorAppeal:
71** Worked sea-salt ice cream into ''Kingdom Hearts II'' as the TrademarkFavoriteFood of Ansem when he tried it on a trip to [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Disney World]] and discovered he liked it. Subverted with Luxord, his favorite Organization XIII member who easily has the smallest role of them all (so far).
72** He's a fanboy of [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV Kain Highwind]], and Riku of ''Kingdom Hearts'' mirrors Kain's character growth and relationships with the other heroes in many ways. Nomura ''really'' wanted Kain in ''[[VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy Dissidia]]'', even suggesting at one point he be in over Golbez as ''IV''[='s=] representative villain when plans for Kain as a bonus character were axed. He promised in the Ultimania for the game that if ''Dissidia'' got a sequel, Kain would definitely be included, and come ''Dissidia 012'' he kept his word.
73** Nomura is admittedly big into sky and weather-themed names, so a lot of the protagonists he's designed, [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Cloud]], [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII Squall]], [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX Tidus and Yuna]], [[Franchise/KingdomHearts Sora]] and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV Noctis]] [[note]]specifically his surname ''Caelum'', which is Latin for "heaven"/"sky"[[/note]] all followed suit. Ironically, he tried to break this trend with [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII Lightning]], but she ended up being named without his input.
74** Nomura seems to like [[RavenHairIvorySkin dark haired women]], sometimes with a HimeCut. See: [[VideoGame/NEOTheWorldEndsWithYou Shoka]] and [[VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2 Patroka]].
75* GratuitousLatin: Nomura has a tendency to name characters and places after Latin words. This was most prominent in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'', to the point where he got a Latin translator to help him write the lyrics to its main theme "Somnus". This tendency is also present in ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'', where there are characters named [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep Terra, Aqua, Ventus, and Vanitas]] ("Earth", "Water", "Wind", "Emptiness") and places named [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII Scala ad Caelum]] and [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIV Quadratum]] ("Stairway to Heaven" and "Creator/{{Square|Enix}}").
76* ImpossiblyCoolClothes: In a couple of instances--[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII Squall's fur collar]] and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX Lulu's belt skirt]]--he has done this to challenge the graphics team.
77* KudzuPlot: Most infamously so in the ''Kingdom Hearts'' series, where he both writes and conceives each game's storyline.
78* [[OlderThanTheyLook Older Than He Looks]]: He was actually in his mid-forties when the page picture was taken.
79* OnlySixFaces: Increasingly being accused of falling into this as his designs are starting to look like [[{{Expy}} Expies]] of characters from earlier projects. There's often in-story explanations for the more blatant lookalikes in the ''Kingdom Hearts'' and ''Compilation of Final Fantasy VII'', such as being a sort of clone or duplicate.
80* RummageSaleReject: Some of his more "overdesigned" characters are criticized for at least partially adhering to the trope, such as the aforementioned Lulu. [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2 Nooj]] is perhaps the biggest offender of them all, but Nomura's more recent fondness for a gear motif in the place of his usual belts and zippers has resulted in other headscratching (re)designs like [[VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy2015 Materia]] and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake Rufus Shinra]].
81* SignatureStyle: Beyond "beltanzipper", he was primarily brought on to be lead designer for ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' because his blocky, comic-bookish designs would survive the transition to 3D models easier than the DesignStudentsOrgasm that was Creator/YoshitakaAmano's work. This was pre-ArtEvolution, though.
82* TooManyBelts: One of his favorite tropes, many of his characters have a lot of belts and straps all over their outfits. The zenith of this is [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX Lulu]], who provides the page image with a lower dress made out of belts. Nomura claims he did this to challenge the graphics team to see if they could keep the number and positions of them straight in FMV scenes, but they avoided that by just avoiding showing Lulu from the waist-down when they could.
83* WordSaladTitle: There's a roughly 50% chance that he comes up with one of these whenever he is allowed to name a game. The ''Kingdom Hearts'' series is very infamous for this, and he is also responsible for giving ''VideoGame/TheatrhythmFinalFantasy'' its title.
84* {{Zipperiffic}}: His ''other'' favorite trope, most infamous in the ''Kingdom Hearts'' series; his Donald Duck design provides the page image again. While the belts/straps have stuck around as his art has evolved, this one has mostly faded away.
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